Crusty
Living Legend
- Joined
- May 21, 2012
- Messages
- 13,595
- Like
- 19,250
It happens – its college football. Teams have bad games and teams, especially young teams, will sometimes come out flat and unprepared to play. That is the only way to describe the USF game. However, the timing for such a performance could hardly have been worse as it all but killed the buzz building after LSU. A close loss in an exciting hard fought game would have been OK, but the effect of this shocking collapse against a very average AAC team is a downer. Nothing to do but move on and put up a strong win against UVA this Saturday.
Any report on this game will be critical and this one will be as well so, apologies.
Out-coached and Outplayed
While it pains me to say it – this one is on the staff. We were healthy and had a bye week with plenty of time to prepare for an AAC team with a losing record and we blew it. We were outcoached and outplayed in every phase of the game – particularly on defense. The staff gets paid to have the team ready to play and they didn't.
USF came out and smashed us in the mouth and we had no answer. Their defense stacked the box, played man coverage and dared us to beat them with our passing game. We just tried to pound the rock with terrible results – only 73 yards rushing. Let me say that again – only 73 yards rushing.
Dungey
Dungey was clearly rusty starting out as many of his normally accurate passes were a bit off the mark. He usually hits receivers in stride and normally gets some YAC, but not in the first half yesterday. Even on passes he completed, receivers had to stop or dive for catches resulting in no YAC. Dungey got on track in the second half scoring 21 points, which is normally excellent in any half of football (but not when the other guys score 35!!). He made some very good plays and finished with 21 for 34 (62%) for 232 yards with 2 TDs and 1 Int. I would hasten to add that the TD was thrown in desperation time and would not normally have been thrown. While he started slowly, Dungey was not the reason we got shellacked.
Lester
This was not Lester’s best game. As mentioned, USF has a solid senior line and they stacked the box. They played man coverage and their safeties were up all day. I keep waiting for us to throw them out of that defense, but it never happened until the second half when we were swimming uphill.
Now, I understand that Dungey was not settled down at the start and this may be the reason Lester didn’t try to throw USF out of their defense. The big head scratcher was that our best playmakers – Estime and Ishmael were not targeted at all. Understandably, Lester always wants to establish the run, but I am baffled as to why he took so long to throw USF out of its defense when it was evident that running was not going to work.
All of that said, the offense did not lose this game. Twenty four points will win a fair number of games and should have won this one. (The average PPG in the ACC is about 24.)
Defense
This was arguably Bullough’s worst game as SU DC. (GT, Clemson and FSU circa 2013 debacles were against very good teams in Chuck’s first year.)
The defense looked shaky from the start. The front line was unable to get any push against the senior USF line. USF seemed to seal the edge at will and they blocked us on counters, traps, jet sweeps, screen passes - just about everything.
Still, at the end of the half we were only down 10-3 and USF only had one big play on a screen pass that we blew. Three of the points were on our blown punt coverage when Whitner let the ball hit him and USF recovered. This left us all figuring that second half adjustments would take to victory. Instead, USF made the adjustments.
In the second half, USF had 7 drives. One ended with a fumble and the last they ran out the clock. The remaining 5 drives resulted in 27 plays for 321 yards (11.9 avg) and 5 TDs. Even their lousy passing game hurt us (including an embarrassing flea flicker TD). All told, USf scored on 7 of their 13 drives including 6 TDs and one FG.
USF gashed us for 281 yards rushing. Everything they ran worked as they blocked us effectively and our tackling was nothing short of atrocious. Arm tackles attempted everywhere. To add insult to injury they passed for 259 yards for a total yardage of 540!! We won’t win any games giving up 540 yards.
We now have some serious questions to ask about our defense. We have seen this before and I have no doubt we will rally next week, but we may have more challenges on D that we had previously thought.
One thought about Kielan Whitner who made one unfortunate and one bone head play. His late hit PF, which in my view simply had to be called, killed our rally and was a big turning point in the game. Kielan wouldn't be out there as a true freshman if he didn't have talent. He apologized to his teammates, which take guts and character. I'll take talent, guts and character all day. It's all right Kielan, you'll have plenty of opportunity to help us win games. We've got your back, young man.
Any report on this game will be critical and this one will be as well so, apologies.
Out-coached and Outplayed
While it pains me to say it – this one is on the staff. We were healthy and had a bye week with plenty of time to prepare for an AAC team with a losing record and we blew it. We were outcoached and outplayed in every phase of the game – particularly on defense. The staff gets paid to have the team ready to play and they didn't.
USF came out and smashed us in the mouth and we had no answer. Their defense stacked the box, played man coverage and dared us to beat them with our passing game. We just tried to pound the rock with terrible results – only 73 yards rushing. Let me say that again – only 73 yards rushing.
Dungey
Dungey was clearly rusty starting out as many of his normally accurate passes were a bit off the mark. He usually hits receivers in stride and normally gets some YAC, but not in the first half yesterday. Even on passes he completed, receivers had to stop or dive for catches resulting in no YAC. Dungey got on track in the second half scoring 21 points, which is normally excellent in any half of football (but not when the other guys score 35!!). He made some very good plays and finished with 21 for 34 (62%) for 232 yards with 2 TDs and 1 Int. I would hasten to add that the TD was thrown in desperation time and would not normally have been thrown. While he started slowly, Dungey was not the reason we got shellacked.
Lester
This was not Lester’s best game. As mentioned, USF has a solid senior line and they stacked the box. They played man coverage and their safeties were up all day. I keep waiting for us to throw them out of that defense, but it never happened until the second half when we were swimming uphill.
Now, I understand that Dungey was not settled down at the start and this may be the reason Lester didn’t try to throw USF out of their defense. The big head scratcher was that our best playmakers – Estime and Ishmael were not targeted at all. Understandably, Lester always wants to establish the run, but I am baffled as to why he took so long to throw USF out of its defense when it was evident that running was not going to work.
All of that said, the offense did not lose this game. Twenty four points will win a fair number of games and should have won this one. (The average PPG in the ACC is about 24.)
Defense
This was arguably Bullough’s worst game as SU DC. (GT, Clemson and FSU circa 2013 debacles were against very good teams in Chuck’s first year.)
The defense looked shaky from the start. The front line was unable to get any push against the senior USF line. USF seemed to seal the edge at will and they blocked us on counters, traps, jet sweeps, screen passes - just about everything.
Still, at the end of the half we were only down 10-3 and USF only had one big play on a screen pass that we blew. Three of the points were on our blown punt coverage when Whitner let the ball hit him and USF recovered. This left us all figuring that second half adjustments would take to victory. Instead, USF made the adjustments.
In the second half, USF had 7 drives. One ended with a fumble and the last they ran out the clock. The remaining 5 drives resulted in 27 plays for 321 yards (11.9 avg) and 5 TDs. Even their lousy passing game hurt us (including an embarrassing flea flicker TD). All told, USf scored on 7 of their 13 drives including 6 TDs and one FG.
USF gashed us for 281 yards rushing. Everything they ran worked as they blocked us effectively and our tackling was nothing short of atrocious. Arm tackles attempted everywhere. To add insult to injury they passed for 259 yards for a total yardage of 540!! We won’t win any games giving up 540 yards.
We now have some serious questions to ask about our defense. We have seen this before and I have no doubt we will rally next week, but we may have more challenges on D that we had previously thought.
One thought about Kielan Whitner who made one unfortunate and one bone head play. His late hit PF, which in my view simply had to be called, killed our rally and was a big turning point in the game. Kielan wouldn't be out there as a true freshman if he didn't have talent. He apologized to his teammates, which take guts and character. I'll take talent, guts and character all day. It's all right Kielan, you'll have plenty of opportunity to help us win games. We've got your back, young man.
